Xbox Games With Gold Sports ‘Halo: Reach,’ ‘Super Time Force,’ And More For September

Xbox One and Xbox 360 owners with an Xbox LIVE Gold subscription have some new free games to look forward to for September courtesy of the Games with Gold program. Microsoft announced three new free games plus a repeat from August.

For the Xbox One, Crimson Dragon will stay on the Games with Gold program for an additional month after being added in August. This isn’t the first time that Microsoft has chosen to keep available for free a second month. It’s not clear if this is due to popularity or because of not being able to secure a deal for two games, however.

The side-scrolling shooter Super Time Force will be the second free game for the Xbox One in September. It will be available on Monday, September 1 all the way through the end of the month.

Super Time Force began with a simple concept: merge side-scrolling classic Contra with a “time-reversal” hook to create a unique action-shooting experience. Super Time Force throws a lot of enemies and projectiles at you at once, but don’t despair – if you mess up, you can press a button to rewind to a point where you can do it all over again, the right way. But that’s not all; your “ghost” (the replay of the playthrough where you just died) will continue to fight alongside you for the new try, turning even your screw-ups into helpful teamwork opportunities. You might say that’s mighty neighborly of… yourself.

Super Time Force for the Xbox One.

Meanwhile, Xbox 360 owners will receive a full retail game and a downloadable title as part of their free September games in the form of Halo: Reach. This four-year old shooter and the last Halo title from Bungie is part of setting up the release of Halo: The Master Chief Collection in November for the Xbox One. Could it be there will be another Halo game joining the Games with Gold program in October? Halo Wars would be the only game available.

Halo: Reach actually won’t actually be free until September 16. It will be preceded by by the Xbox LIVE Arcade title, Monaco: What’s Yours is Mine, on September 1. This stealth action title from Pocketwatch Games received solid review scores, but didn’t get much attention when it was released in April 2013.

What do you think of this month’s Games with Gold line-up for Xbox LIVE Gold subscribers on the Xbox One and Xbox 360? Let us know in the comments below.